Teagan

Teagan sat in her dimly lit apartment, surrounded by newspaper clippings, crime scene photos, and notes. The scent of coffee filled the air as she stared at the wall where she had pictures of the victims that had lost their lives to the serial killer, lost in her thoughts. Memories of her twin sister, Tiffany flooded her mind, Her twin had died. Tee had never stopped feeling deeply guilty about the pain she had caused her parent, along with the burning desire for justice.

The sound of her phone ringing brought back her consciousness. She picked up reluctantly…

“Dave”

“Detective Tee, your attention is needed urgently. A murder occurred in the woods”

“On my way”

***

Tee got to the crime scene

“What happened?”

“She was reported missing a week ago and was found by a family who were going camping” Dave reported; Dave has been her partner since he was transferred to Toronto Police Headquarters for more than 5 years.

“Has her parent being contacted?”

“Yes”

“Cause of death?”

“Hemorrhaging from blunt force trauma, but died of asphyxiation… they think she was suffocated to death, her fingers were chopped off”

“Blunt force trauma?” Tee said with a confused look on her face

“Yes. And yes they found something, a note”

“Where’s it?

“Here” he gave it to her

“Tee… did you forget your sister that quickly, or you thought I was gone? Let another spree of death begin” Tee read out loud “He’s the one, the man who murdered my sister, I think he’s back”

“But why now?” Dave asked

“After 16 years? Dave let’s head back to the boardroom for a briefing”

***

Back at the headquarters inside the boardroom, The captain of the violent crimes team and other team members were seated for briefing.

“Kate Powers, 20, a student at York University, she’s a model. She was reported missing a week ago when she didn’t show up for a casting which was unlike her” Dave said

“Was she on bad terms with anybody?” Captain Cooper asked

“Her friends said she was the most cheerful”

“Anything unique?”

“We think the culprit attacked her from behind with a blunt object then suffocated her. Her fingers were chopped off” Dave explained

“It was the man from 16 years ago” Tee spoke out

“The serial killer who murdered 10 female?” A guy from the team asked

“Yes. He wrote me a letter” Tee signaled Dave to show the letter on the screen “He murdered 11. My sister was his 11th victim. She happened to pass when he was mutilating his 10th victim, he chased her and struck her with the hammer. He couldn’t suffocate and cut off her fingers because I saw him, he needed to get away as quickly as he could. She was killed with just the hammer. If you check the case file of the 10th victim…” she signaled again to save to picture it on the screen “…only 7 fingers were cut, because his mission was interrupted and he has to go after the person who saw him”

“His MO?” A team member asked

“He hits them with a hammer, suffocates them and cuts off their fingers” Dave answered

“His targets?”

“He mostly targets females who either works at karaoke bars or clubs or dancers within the age range of 29-33. 35 is the highest age of his victims” Dave said

“Why did his age range change and why did he choose a student now?” The chief asked “its logical reasoning, the letter might just be a prank, we have to be sure he’s the one. Just because the MO is the same doesn’t make them the same person”

“A random person just doesn’t cut fingers off and writes me a letter. He has to be the one” Tee said

“I think you’re getting too emotional, do you want to be off this case?” The chief said already getting angry “We can’t rile up the people by telling them there’s a serial murderer in town. Let’s solve this case as quickly as possible.” The church stood up leaving the boardroom along with other team members leaving Tee in utter confusion.

***

Driving home in silence, Tee was convinced it was the same man. Why now? Why’d he show up again? What message was he trying to pass? These questions lingered in her head, with no answer. She picked up her phone to call Dave

“Hey Dave”

“Detective?”

“Come over to my place, bring along Kate and the case files for this case and the ones from 16 years ago” she said and dropped the call

Dave and Kate, a junior detective at the violent crimes department arrived shortly at Tee’s apartment. Her apartment was dark, and really lonely. Nothing exciting, it had a strong smell of coffee, and book scrapings littered everywhere. She had no friends afterall. They thought it was just a facade she’d put up to avoid any form of attachments with co-workers but it was real. She was lonely and stoic. Her apartment was her hiding place.

The desiderium she felt over the years has made her closed up.

She stretched her hand to the chair “Have you seat”. They sat quietly and arranged the case files gently on the floor. They were all seated and reviewing the files.

“What are the similarities in these cases?” Tee asked

“They were all stricken with blunt objects, fingers chopped off.” Kate explained

“What does he want their fingers for? Why is he cutting off their fingers?” Tee thought out loud. There was a great silence in their midst because they were all trying to come up with possible answers.

“What if there was something on their nails that attracts him? Like a nail polish? They all work in either karaoke bars, clubs or stripping house and their nails have to be neatly polished.” Kate suggests

Tee shakes her head “Hmm. His first victim was a nail technician. Do you think there’s a connection? Dave look into the family members of nail technician. She was the only one who didn’t work in extravagant places”

Dave flipped through the papers and stopped at a particular page “She had a son when she was killed. She has no parents or siblings that we know of and she was said to be divorced but it was not registered.”

“Do you think the nail technician was the reason for his killings?” Kate asked

“It’s all just mere speculation for now, let’s keep digging to see if we’ll get more informations.”